Elizabeth Velazquez

While I was studying undergraduate engineering at Northwestern, I spent a summer in Chile, working to bring clean water to a small village. The project was challenging and rewarding, but I realized that what I liked most about it wasn’t the engineering part — it was the project management and interacting with the villagers that I found most fulfilling. I liked going into the community, working with the people and helping them improve their lives. At the end of my senior year, I realized that I wasn’t sure I necessarily wanted to be an engineer but something greater with a much larger social impact.

I was looking for focus when I finished my degree. The Russell Fellows Program helped me find it.

Early in the program, I talked to a lot of Kellogg alumni about their career paths. Like me, many of them had started out in one field, but figured out later that they’d be happier in another. They had discovered what they were truly passionate about and used the skills they developed at Kellogg to build a career around it.

The Kellogg faculty are incredible. They challenged us to take on the same coursework they assign to their MBA students, and they also gave me a new perspective on solving complex problems. In engineering, there is often a single way to view a problem, but Kellogg demanded a more holistic view.

The collaborative focus of the program also made me much better at working with other people. As I prepare to start my new job in consulting, I know that what I learned at Kellogg will assist my clients in achieving their goals and reaching their full potential.